Computer and Games History Part 2: 80's and 90's

Mind mapping and trying to decide the subject.

Last time we left off with the new age of personal computers entering the home with the ZX spectrum in the United Kingdom in 1982 being sold as the first affordable family computer. What was good about this was that now anyone in the house hold could plug their new computer into their television and begin using programs or in many cases create their own. This allowed the public to learn to program themselves and soon a whole generation of coders was created using magazines released to educate the population about computers and many games were created by self-taught coders.

This new world where gaming was becoming a vast new industry that had 100's of new games being released over the market with new consoles as well like. This new industries rapid growth meant that the new talent would keep producing games for years to come. This allowed the games industry to keep having lots of new content for cheap intern inspiring more people to begin coding and create their own content after seeing the success of their peers. This was however exclusive to Europe where this constant growth of talent and content made money. The story in America was a very different problem where in 1983-84 the video game crash was about to happen.

The main video game company operating in America at the time was Atari, which had massive sales of games and consoles but the profit margin was made from the games and not the consoles; which meant good content had to be released. This was complicated because Atari refused to give authoring rites to its game developers royalties and authoring rites for their work meaning that many would leave. Many new companies were being made by  these game developers and were in direct competition with Atari. Also the American market finally had it's first affordable micro-computers like the Commodore 64 being released in 1982 and with these game developer moving to create computer games instead of console games.

Eventually Atari lost its money and too many new companies tried to cash in on this gap in the market with too many unsuccessful, crudely made games flooding the market it eventually went under and the console market in America effectively died out for 2 years until in 1985 the NES was launched by Nintendo ( a Japanese company) with the most widely known video game character ever... Mario!

Suddenly a new generation of gaming was born. Of course new consoles were still being made but the Market was now torn between large companies like Nintendo and Sega. Sega's consoles were very successful with the "Genesis" released in 1989 and the "Dreamcast" in 1998. Handheld gaming was also formed when the Gameboy was released in 1989 and now gaming wasn't exclusive to the home. It was now anywhere you were. On the bus, train at school and anywhere else. The last major step in gaming was the rise of the newer systems where 3D was being used. The Sega Dreamcast, Nintendo 64 by Nintendo and the newest big console in the 90's the Playstation. These high quality 3D games made big money and solidified the gaming industry.

If it wasn't for the 80's crash these new systems and companies wouldn't have got the chance to grow and become what they were and in the case of Sony and Nintendo what they still are today. The 80's and 90's made the foundation for the new market of consoles still existing today.

Referencs:

http://www.gamesradar.com/consoles-of-the-80s/
GamesRadar_ US on June 23, 2012     Contributors: Shane Patterson and Brett Elston

http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2011/07/bbc_documentary_captures_the_f.php
BBC documentary 1984

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZX_Spectrum

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/gamesblog/2012/apr/23/zx-spectrum-computer-masses-games
Posted by Keith Stuart

http://uk.ign.com/articles/2011/09/21/ten-facts-about-the-great-video-game-crash-of-83?page=1
by Nadia Oxford SEPTEMBER 21, 2011

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheGreatVideoGameCrashOf1983
unknown date and writer.

http://elder-geek.com/2010/08/the-insane-console-history-video-20/
2nd August 2010

Images:

http://ascii.textfiles.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/c64_10.jpg

http://static.giantbomb.com/uploads/original/15/153607/2554987-3034468139-Mario.png